Quick Hasan Jury Selection Could Mean Quick Trial

posted by Jim Forsyth
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3 years ago

The fact that jury selection in the Nidal Hasan Ft. Hood massacre trial took a lot less time to complete than expected has prompted experts to predict that the trial itself will be short, with Hasan essentially presenting no defense, 1200 WOAI news reports.

"We see that the jury selection took half as long as anticipated," said Jeffrey Addicott, who heads the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary's University. "We see that Hasan is basically rolling over."

Hasan asked few questions of the prospective jurors who were called from Army posts all over the country to serve on the 13 member panel. He only asked them about their knowledge of Sharia, the Koranic legal system in place in fundamentalist Islamic countries, and a topic which is completely irrelevant to the trial he faces/

Addicott says Hasan is not interested in guilt or innocence, and doesn't care if he goes to prison or gets the death penalty.

"He sees this more as an opportunity to advance radical Islamic extremist dogma," Addicott said. "I think we'll see more of that as this trial goes on."

Nine colonels, three lieutenant colonels, and one major are on the 13 member panel. By military law, any case involving the death penalty has to have 'at least' 12 members, and the judge, Col Tara Osborn, declared the jury panel selected after the 13th juror was certified.

Addicott expects Hasan to continue his rambling gibberish during the trial, and he said he is completely unconcerned about whether he will get the death penalty.

"What motivated him to murder those people is still in the forefront of his mind," he said.

Despite that, Addicott says military prosecutors will still have to prove their case, and will still call witnesses, including many of Hasan's victims, to the stand to testify about the events of November 5, 2009.